Bring on Back to School with LeapStart

Summer is almost over and we are in full back to school mode. Supplies, clothes and backpacks for everyone!! My daughter isn’t in “real” school yet… but she does have lesson plans for each semester at her daycare. During summer, they chill out on the academics a bit since the classes have fewer kids. So I was excited when Leap Frog sent me their latest learning solution: LeapStart! I am super lucky to be a part of the Leap Frog Mom Squad. My family loves Leap Frog in my house and we feel really lucky to get to try out all these amazing products!

The LeapStart is a all-in-one interactive learning system for preschool through 1st grade. It reminds me of the original Leap Frog and Leap Frog Jr. reading systems, but this is more like an interactive workbook. (versus a story book) Leap Frog sent me a LeapStart Sr. version with 9 books from the Leap library. The books focus on a wide array of skills: reading, writing, math, STEM and even social and emotional skills.

My daughter LOVES her Leap Frog Reader Jr. so I knew this was going to be a huge hit. She jumped in right away and wanted to play with every single book. After a few weeks of having it, she still goes for it all the time and it has found a permanent home on the coffee table in our family room! She rotates through all the books, but Pet Pal Puppies Math is by far her favorite. The books also have stickers. Some are just used as rewards at the end of the book to acknowledge which skills your child mastered, but other times it is part of the fun. In Pet Pal Puppies, she had to match the dog stickers to their correct frames which she loved, since she is sticker obsessed.

She also really loves Kids World Atlas since she likes learning about other countries and especially enjoys the interactive language spinner that teaches different words and phrases in 6 languages. (a lot of the kids speak Spanish at her daycare, so she LOVES trying to learn other languages)

Each book has 4 colored squares on the bottom. Hit the first square to play an activity, the second square with two stars begins a level 2 activity for the same page, which is a bit more challenging. It also has a hint button and a stop button. The pages are interactive, so you don’t even need to start an activity right away. Your child can just explore the pages for awhile. This means each book has a huge variety of activities and games.

I think this is a great system that can grow with your child thanks to the varying books and levels. The LeapStart system retails for about $40 and the books cost about $12. I am super excited since the fantastic folks over at Leap Frog sent me an EXTRA LeapStart to giveaway along with two books! How awesome is that??

Our family is a huge fan of Leapfrog products! They’re educational with still being fun. Plus they last a really long time and it’s one of the few brands of toys that my son doesn’t get bored with after a week!